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Karkat isn’t really sure how John talked him into this.
This being Kanaya’s stupid theater party.
To be fair, it’s not really her theater party, so he can’t blame her for the way John has maybe had a little too much to drink and has immersed himself in a crowd that is way too intent upon getting their hands all over what belongs to him.
Karkat growls.
It had started out okay. And then a game of drunken Twister on the lawn had turned into way too much touching, and there’s nowhere to go to escape it. There is a dance party in the living room, a keg in the backyard, more drinks in the kitchen, couples hooking up in the bedrooms, couples hooking up upstairs, and Karkat drags John away to the front porch, where at least people are sitting and talking, even if their words are a bit slurred and they’re sprawling all over each other.
“Karka~t… Why’d you do that?” John whines at Karkat’s side, and he’s trying to keep the boy propped up in his spot on the porch swing because the couch is full. But swinging and a tipsy John do not mix well, and so the human ends up hanging off him, arms about Karkat’s neck and his head on Karkat’s shoulder. “She was gonna—”
“I know what she was ‘gonna’ do, you moron. Can’t you manage to keep people off you for one gogdamned second? I can’t take my eyes off you long enough to piss.”
John is quiet, and Karkat assumes he’s trying to process what Karkat is telling him. “I was gonna get a kiss card,” is his reply.
Apparently he was not processing, and Karkat sighs and pats John’s hair, having accepted that he is going to be John’s pillow for now.
Those fucking cards are another problem. The thing that somehow legitimizes this whole makeout party. Doled out at the start, they are intended to entitle their bearer to one kiss. If the person propositioned acquiesces, then they receive the card. And so on. All of this results in a lot of party-sanctioned kissing, though at this point, Karkat doubts that anyone is even using the cards as an excuse.
Except for John, that is.
“I needed one. You don’t understa~nd.” John is definitely pouting, and his arms wrap around Karkat’s waist as he cuddles closer.
“John, the fuck did you need one of those for? You shouldn’t be making out with anyone anyway, and even if you did want to…it’s not like anyone would care if you had a card or not.” Karkat growls the last statement, not very happy at how damn true it is.
“You might.”
Karkat rolls his eyes and tilts his head to meet John’s own. Liquid blue, swimming wide and hopeful up at him. He forgets what he was going to say.
“Would you, if I had one? Would you kiss me, Karkat?”
The troll is really glad that everyone around them is shitfaced, because he’s probably blushing like crazy and is half-covered in his tipsy…friend. And he wants to. Fuck, how he wants to. But he’s been paying attention to his romcoms, and he knows that drunken shenanigans rarely end well. This isn’t how he wants it to happen, either. He doesn’t want to be kissing John in front of a million people he doesn’t know, with John smelling like alcohol and the memory of other people all over him forefront in his mind.
Karkat wants John all to himself. In complete possession of his wits (little as they are). He wants to know that John wants him back. Because if this happens just because John has had too much to drink and is flying high on the environment or attention or whatever, if John doesn’t remember - or worse, doesn’t care - in the morning… Karkat couldn’t handle that.
So he pushes John gently back, strokes across his cheek with one clawed finger, careful not to damage the fragile skin. “Ask me when you’re sober, and I’ll say yes.”
John positively glows at that, second only to probably Kanaya, and that’s not really a fair comparison. Pacified, he cuddles back against Karkat’s side, grinning like the idiot he is. Karkat’s hand comes up to scratch soothingly through his hair, and John sighs as they watch the party gradually disperse.
When John starts falling asleep and drooling on Karkat’s shirt, the troll decides it’s time to say goodbye to Kanaya and leave.
They hold hands the entire way home.